Tesla plans for robotaxis: “The bet doesn’t work out”

Tesla boss Elon Musk caused a stir by presenting his plans for a self-driving “Cybercab” and a bus called “Robovan”. The electric car manufacturer wants to produce the robotaxi from 2026, and the price should be under the $30,000 mark.

The price was the only sensational thing about the presentation, says German car expert Ferdinand Dudenhöfer. He doesn’t think the announcement is credible. In addition, accidents are inevitable: “The autopilot has shown how weak cameras are as sensors in autonomous driving. Slight weather influences, for example, can blind the cameras,” says Dudenhöfer. In contrast to other providers, Tesla only uses cameras and does not use additional technology.

Image gallery: Tesla presents Robotaxi and Robovan

Musk postponed the development of a cheaper Tesla model on a new platform for the robotaxi, which would open up a larger market for the pioneer. Instead, Musk announced that Tesla’s future lies in autonomous driving. “The $30,000 cybercab is a bet that doesn’t work,” says Dudenhöfer.

TBecause investors would stay away from it: In addition to the immature technology, Tesla is simply too late. Robotaxis are already driving in China, and Google’s sister company Waymo is also ahead of Tesla in the USA. Their self-driving vehicles are already part of the cityscape in San Francisco, for example. And in the historically developed cities in Europe, self-driving cars are much more difficult to use, says Dudenhöfer.

In recent months, Tesla’s once rapid growth has slowed significantly. Accordingly, the share price is well away from its previous highs, at which Tesla was worth more than a trillion dollars. Musk is known for repeatedly igniting investors’ imaginations with full-bodied promises and visions of the future.

The share price is not insignificant for Musk: the Tesla stake makes up a large part of his assets, which the financial service Bloomberg currently estimates at more than 250 billion dollars.